1. Field of the Invention
This application relates to controlling access to the Internet by monitoring data received in response to a data request to the Internet. More particularly, the application relates to systems and methods for monitoring results to user requests for content or information.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is estimated that 80 percent of website visits are initiated through search engines. As a result, website pages that appear in a list of returned search results or hyperlinks tend to receive significant inbound traffic through the search engine. The higher a website is on the list of returned hyperlinks, the more likely the user will select that hyperlink. Unfortunately, techniques such as “Google-bombing” or “Spamdexing” allow website operators to deliberately modify HTML pages associated with their websites so as to increase the chance that their pages are placed higher on the list of search engine results, or to influence the category to which their pages are assigned in a misleading or dishonest manner. Thus, operators of websites having undesirable or malicious content often employ such tactics to generate traffic to their websites.
In addition, as the use of the Internet evolves, more and more content is delivered to users from disparate and sometimes unknown sources. For example, the desire on the part of users for quicker and easier access to frequently updated content has led to the development of technologies such as web feeds which serve frequently updated content. In one common scenario of using web feeds, a content provider publishes a web feed link on their site which allows an aggregator program (also called a feed reader or a news reader) to register to receive updated content. The aggregator is configured to periodically ask each server in its feed list if they have new content. For each of the servers having new content, the aggregator either makes a note of the new content or downloads the content. Although various types of content may be delivered by web feeds, typically, HTML pages or URL links to web pages are delivered. As with the search engine results discussed above, operators of websites having undesirable or malicious content may utilize misleading techniques with the purpose of having their malicious content included in the web feeds.